Three Koreans in exile cross paths in 1941 Manchuria during the Japanese occupation. Park Chang-yi, the hitman/bandit leader, is hired to steal a treasure map from a Japanese official, but a train robber, Yoon Tae-goo, beats him to the punch — only to be captured by a Bounty Hunter, Park Do-won. Tae-goo talks Do-won into helping him search for the treasure instead, and they set off through the desert together, with Chang-yi's gang and the Japanese army in pursuit. During the action-filled chase that follows, each of the three turns out to have some hidden motives.

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The Good, the Bad, the Weird provides examples of the following tropes:

Accidental Pervert: While escaping from Byung-choon and his gang, Tae-goo sneaks into the next hotel room, only to be met with a hooker smacking him with a pillow.

Action Survivor: Tae-goo seems to be this; no-one knows what skills he has, they just know that he survives no matter what you throw at him. In several scenes he gets away only because Do-won helps him out. In truth, though, this is Obfuscating Stupidity, and he is in fact a textbook Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass. Subverted in the international cut, played straight in the extended Korean version.

Affably Evil: Tae-goo doesn't seem all that bad until you realise that he was once a ruthless serial mutilator.

Anachronism Stew: With most of the military hardware. The film is set in 1941; the military trucks and jeeps, being mostly post-WWII models (but still Imperial Army soldiers are the most accurately outfitted to the time period, plus Do-won, Chang-yi and Tae-goo's guns are period accurate).

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Anti-Hero: Do-won. It's interesting to note that if one tallies kill counts throughout the film by the three protagonists, Chang-yi (The Bad) is the least murderous of the three while Do-won (The Good) racks up the highest body count. This reflects the on-screen kill count in The Good, the Bad and the Ugly: Angel Eyes (The Bad), for all of his Offscreen Villainy, has the lowest body count of three, while Blondie (The Good) has the highest body count: 11.

Evil Costume Switch: A zig-zagging example. As the "Finger-chopper", Tae-goo wore a black Badass Biker outfit instead of the brown clothes he wears during the movie. In The Stinger during the credits, he's shown back in his old gear.

Expy: Do-won, Tae-goo and Chang-yi are Expies of Blondie, Tuco and Angel Eyes, respectively. Chang-yi's employee could also count as one of Baker from the same film.

This counts for triple in Do-won's case as Blondie is himself an Expy of Sanjuro Kuwabatake, who was himself based on the protagonist of Red Harvest.

Early-Bird Cameo: Look closely in the salesmen scene at the beginning, you can spot both Do-won taking his seat and Tae-goo's friend Man-gil trying to talk to him.

Hat Damage: Do-won gets a bullet through the brim of his hat during the gun battle with Japanese Army, and Chang-yi shoots Tae-goo's aviator cap off his head just before the final showdown.

High-Speed Hijack: During the battle with the Japanese troops, Tae-goo leaps from his motorcycle into a jeep which he immediately commandeers. The soldier who jumps from the jeep to the motorcycle is less lucky, as the bike immediately crashes.

Horseback Heroism: Do-won comes charging into the Ghost Market on horseback to save Man-gil from Chang-yi. He later charges into the middle of a Japanese cavalry troop in a Big Damn Heroes moment.

If I Were a Rich Man: Tae-goo confesses to Do-won what he'd do with the treasure once he finds it: buy land and livestock.

Mohs Scale of Violence Hardness: A solid 8. As well as Do-won mowing people down, there's stabbing in the throat, Japanese spies getting spikes (bloodless and comedically) shoved up their asses, impaling, and a ton of Fingore (thanks to the reveal of Tae-goo's past identity), notably even attempted on Man-gil by Chang-yi.

Pet the Dog: Tae-goo's kindness to those children. Do-won's expression of idealistic sentiments might also qualify. He's not a bad guy to begin with, but is more sympathetic after showing he does his work because of a code, not just for the cash.

Rasputinian Death: All three main characters take about a dozen bullets before going down.

We never see Man-gil again after his torture in the Ghost Market, so it's likely that after being slashed, thrown through a window by Chang-yi, stabbed in the leg, had a knife dug into his finger and got dragged through the ground on a horse, this may have happened to him.

Re-Cut: The alternative ending found on most of the DVD's is basically just a longer version of the ending which closes some plot elements like what happened to the rest of the Japanese army and gives a clearer explanation for what we see at the end of the theatrical version.

Screaming Woman: A woman on the carriage that Tae-goo robs, and the only one on that carriage he doesn't accidentally kill after Chang-yi pulls the emergency brake. Chang-yi kills her because she's screaming hysterically when he gets there.

Toward the end of the film, Chang-yi shoots off Tae-goo's hat and keeps shooting it every time Tae-goo tries to retrieve it from the ground. This is quite similar to a scene in For a Few Dollars More where Monco and Colonel Mortimer do this to each other.

During the climactic standoff, a panning shot shows Chang-yi and Tae-goo in the distance, with Do-won in the foreground, seen from the back, wearing his longcoat and carrying his Winchester rifle. This mirrors the scene in Once Upon a Time in the West. The music when Byung-choon and his gang arrive at the ocean is reminiscent of Cheyenne's theme.

In the alternative ending, it's revealed that Tae-goo pulled the same trick as Joe in A Fistful of Dollars.

When Do-won is about to shoot Tae-goo's motorcycle, he whistles in a similar manner to the bounty hunter at the beginning of For a Few Dollars More.

Slipping a Mickey: Tae-goo is slipped a mickey by one of the girls in the brothel, so the pimp can steal the map and sell it to the Japanese.

The Smurfette Principle: Na-yun is the only prominent female character in the film, and she only appears in the Korean version. Do-won's sister Song-yi is also in the film, though she doesn't have as much to do.

Talking Is a Free Action: Subverted. Chang-yi's boss gets sick of him and holds a gun to him, but goes off on a rant and brags that he can't dodge a bullet. Chang-yi proceeds to drive a knife into the back of the man's neck.

The Un-Reveal: After hearing Tae-goo's dream and motivation for pursuing the treasure, Do-Won starts talking about his own dream. But before he can say what it actually is he stops when he realizes Tae-goo fell asleep, and the topic never comes up again.

Unorthodox Reload: Do-won cocks his lever-action rifle by flipping it over his fingers during the climax of the film.

Villain Protagonist: Tae-goo. Kim and Song went into this film knowing that this was going to be his movie.

Why Am I Ticking?: When Tae-goo commandeers a Japanese jeep and throws the driver out, he stuffs a lit stick of dynamite down the back of the driver's pants. The driver has a few seconds to realise something is horribly wrong before he blows up.

Later, in the Korean ending, Tae-goo is very slow to realise the stick of dynamite in his hand is close to blowing up. He throws it away, though.

Worthless Yellow Rocks: The so-called treasure map actually led to an oil well, which is of no value to the protagonists. This kind of seems to evoke The Treasure of the Sierra Madreespecially in the version of the film where all three protagonists die needlessly. In other versions, there's a consolation in that Tae-goo and possibly Do-won as well are implied to have left with some of the loot Chang-yi brought with him.

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